Puebla

Serendipity, a gift that comes through at the most opportune times. That's how I consider our stay in Puebla, bookends to our journey. We began our adventure with an overnight stay in Puebla, according to Google Maps, 6 hours away from our home base in San Luis Potosí. Our hotel was right in the center of town, "El Centro". We were welcomed by lots of traffic, but little did we know that the traffic was due to the special treat we were going to receive that evening. The city organizes an annual Christmas cantata, with choirs, dance, and a live orchestra. I wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit, it's kind of hard to get into that mood when you're away from home and family. But as we stepped out of our hotel room that evening into the brisk air and joined the crowd that was walking towards el centro, little did we suspect the special treat we were about to enjoy. The musical was excellent, we positioned ourselves under a huge tree and were surrounded by beautiful voices and heartfelt narration for about an hour. I will forever remember this evening as one of my favorite Christmas moments. It filled my heart with thanks for the miracle of Jesus coming to our world to save you and me from sin.

December 22, 2016. Entering Puebla for the first time. We left SLP at 6:00 am to avoid the morning traffic out of the city. Good thing too, because we got caught in traffic in Querétaro and what should have been a six hour drive turned into a plus-seven hour journey. 

La Zanahoria, a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Puebla. It was pretty good, we were so hungry after being on the road for over seven hours. The place was packed with people, surprisingly.

Here's the view from our hotel room at sunset. I love the warm colors of the Mexican sky. Sunsets and sunrises here never disappoint.

 

Let me introduce you to the adventurous Kevin and Joy, ready for the biggest roadtrip we've ever undertaken.

The audience at the Christmas cantata. There was seating but you had to get there early to get a seat. The tree under which I positioned myself was just fine, thank you!

The singing Christmas tree, there were over a hundred voices between all the choirs. The sound was full and very melodious. 

The entire Centro was beautifully decorated with Christmas lights.

Beautiful BMW blue. :-)

The city planners did an amazing job lighting the old buildings and churches. We enjoyed walking the city center at night.

A selfie with my chauffeur who did an amazing job driving over 5,000 kilometers on this roadtrip. I drove a whopping 100 km. :)

January 3 , 2017. On our return trip back home, we also stopped in Puebla for a couple of extra days. We didn't get to really explore the city when we started our journey and we wanted to rest before heading back to the drudgery of work, so we scheduled two days in Puebla at the end of our trip. We even stayed in the same hotel. This was my dinner that night, we discovered an amazing restaurant called "Maiz Prieto", black corn, the food was absolutely wonderful, with great vegetarian options. I had the esquites (corn with chiles), a salad with lentil sprouts and a zesty foam for dressing for appetizer. Definitely coming back here if we're ever in Puebla again. 

The last day we were in Puebla round 2, we visited the famous Piramide Tepanapa ruins in Cholula, the widest pyramid in the world. A unique visit compared to the other pyramid ruins visits in that we were able to go inside the pyramid. I like to call this photo "Pyramid Innards". :) The Spaniards defiantly built a church on top of the pyramid. I think it ruined the effect. Ha ha, get it? Ruined it? Yeah, I won't quit my day job anytime soon for comedy.

View of the famous active volcano Popocatepetl from the top of the ruins. Next to Popo is Iztaccihuatl, also a volcano. The legend says that Izta was the woman who died of grief for Popo. And when Popo came back from war and found out she died, he has been explosively angry ever since.

The ever explosive Popo. 

Kevin representing Popo and me as Izta, on the right. 

The great Piramide Tepanapa, a religious center for about 600 years. It is mostly excavated, with several pyramids built over each other over the centuries. The whole area resembles more of a hill than a pyramid.

 

Climbing to the top of the pyramid-hill, where the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de los Remedios was built.

We enjoyed a small dinner back in Puebla centro that evening, the last night of our great roadtrip. We savored the moment, even though the food was uneventful. We always have a hard time explaining what vegetarian means to local restaurants.